Industrial Employment Trends in Nigeria: Workforce Issues, Impacts and Ideas

Education

The labour market and workforce in Nigeria are experiencing massive pressure changes, both in quantity of entrants but also in the composition of its new entrants. With higher enrolment in engineering and fewer in technical education, disruption in the manpower mix is clearly evident. This paper explores the issues and trends in workforce demographics in Nigeria, with focus on employment trends, workforce trends and the consequences of oversupply of graduates. The changing skills and composition of the informal sector is discussed. The paper wraps up with policy implications for the emerging trends identified. The paper concludes that the present situation of the Nigerian labour market, though dire is marked by certificates for employment and not skills for employment. Consequently, people are overschooled but undereducated. Thus, leaving a dearth of skills and a vacuum that is filled by workers from other countries. A stagnating labour market and formal economy has opened up a lot of young Nigerian graduates to the informal sector changing the composition of the informal sector all over the nation. It is recommended among others that Government should encourage its private sector businesses to develop activities that require graduate level skills and they need to attract new firms with these types of activity.

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